Surgical operations must be carried out under strict conditions of sterility to minimise infection risk in the patient. To this end, a sterile field is set up in the operating theatre around the patient. Any theatre staff, such as surgeons or nurses, who come into physical contact with the patient during surgery must rigorously scrub and wear sterile surgical gloves. All objects and equipment used in surgery must also be sterile.
Surgical equipment is frequently supplied inside sterile packaging which ensures that the equipment inside the packaging is sterile and remains so whilst the packaging is unopened. However, storage, handling, and distribution of the packaging cause the outer surface of the packaging to become non-sterile. To account for this whilst maintaining the sterile field in the operating theatre, surgical teams include a non sterile nurse who opens the packaging containing the sterile surgical equipment and exposes the sterile equipment to a nurse within the sterile field. The nurse within the sterile field then removes the sterile equipment from the packaging. Provided that the non-sterile nurse does not touch the equipment, sterility of the sterile field is not compromised.
A number of pieces of medical and surgical equipment are reusable. In order to reuse such equipment, it is necessary to sterilise the equipment before use in the next operation. Sterilisation of medical and surgical equipment is commonly carried out in an autoclave in which steam at elevated pressure at a temperature of around 134° C. sterilises the equipment.
Although autoclaving is an effective sterilisation method, difficulties can arise where the medical and surgical equipment is delicate. During the autoclave operation, a number of pieces of equipment may be loaded into the autoclave at any one time. This can lead to breakage of delicate equipment. Moreover, it can be difficult to maintain the sterility of the equipment when it is removed from the autoclave and stored for use in the next operation.
An improved means for sterilising medical devices is sought that addresses at least some of the aforementioned problems.
Reference to any prior art in the specification is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgment or any form of suggestion that this prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in Australia or any other jurisdiction or that this prior art could reasonably be expected to be ascertained, understood and regarded as relevant by a person skilled in the art.